AG: Current death penalty system is broken FORT SMITH (AP) — Arkansas’ top lawyer said Wednesday that the current death penalty system is broken. The state hasn’t executed an inmate since 2005. Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said he doesn’t expect that to change anytime soon as Arkansas grapples with legal challenges and a shortage of drugs used in lethal injections. Nine of the state’s death row inmates are suing Arkansas over its new execution law, and the Department of Correction ...

Official: 2 dead in San Francisco plane crashSAN FRANCISCO (AP) — An Asiana Airlines flight from Seoul, South Korea, crashed while landing at San Francisco International Airport on Saturday, killing at least two people, injuring dozens of others and forcing passengers to jump down the emergency inflatable slides to safety as flames tore through the plane. More than 60 passengers were also unaccounted for, said San Francisco Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White. It wasn’t immediately clear where...

On tour, Giffords’ actions speak on gun control DOVER, N.H. (AP) — Thirty months after she was shot through the head, former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords sits in a New Hampshire restaurant facing parents of children killed in the nation’s latest school shooting. They are here to talk political strategy, but Giffords doesn’t say much. She doesn’t have to. The 43-year-old Democrat has become the face of the fight for gun control — a woman now known as much for her actions as her w...

A brewing storm: How fire turned tragic for 19 men YARNELL, Ariz. (AP) — Juliann Ashcraft had just put the kids down for a nap when her cellphone buzzed. It was a text from Andrew, her husband of seven years and, still, her best friend. “This is my lunch spot,” he wrote beneath a photo of hard-hatted firefighters sitting on boulders, watching smoke rise on the horizon. “too bad lunch was an MRE,” the text concluded. It was 2:16 p.m. on June 30. That Sunday morning, Ashcraft and the other 19 me...

Egyptian campers watch events unfold from afar OTISFIELD, Maine (AP) — Nearly two-dozen Egyptians who arrived in Maine last month at a special camp aimed at helping Israeli and Arab teens overcome their differences will return home to a country that ousted its leader following the largest demonstrations seen in their homeland. From more than 5,000 miles away, Egyptians at the Seeds of Peace camp have been trying to stay abreast of the latest developments, including Friday’s clashes that ki...

Crime makes halting comeback as a political issue DENVER (AP) — The ad seems like an artifact from an earlier political era — a grainy mug shot of a convicted murderer, flashing police lights, a recording of a panicked 911 call and then a question about Colorado’s Democratic governor, up for re-election next year: “How can we protect our families when Gov. Hickenlooper allows a cold-blooded killer to escape justice?” The online spot from the Colorado Republican Party appeared only hours after...

Solar powered plane on final leg of flight to NYC WASHINGTON (AP) — A solar-powered aircraft lifted off from a suburban Washington airport before dawn Saturday, embarking on the final leg of a history-making cross-country flight. The Solar Impulse flew out of Dulles International Airport a little before 5 a.m. en route to New York City. The flight plan for the revolutionary plane takes it past the Statue of Liberty before landing at New York’s JFK Airport early Sunday. “This is a leg where ev...

US economy adds 195K jobs; unemployment 7.6 pct. WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers are sending a message of confidence in the economy — hiring more workers, raising pay and making the job market appear strong enough for the Federal Reserve to slow its bond purchases as early as September. The economy gained a robust 195,000 jobs in June and many more in April and May than previously thought. The unemployment rate remained 7.6 percent in June because more people started looking for jobs — a he...

California fireworks platform tips, 28 hurt in blast SIMI VALLEY, Calif. (AP) — As many as 10,000 Fourth of July revelers were just settling into their seats for the fireworks show at a Simi Valley park when a bright plume of red and white bursts spread across the ground, injuring 28 people and sending others fleeing for safety. Police in the city northwest of Los Angeles were still investigating what caused Thursday night’s explosion, but it appeared a firework detonated prematurely in its mort...

Relatives clash over 911 call in Fla. shooting SANFORD, Fla. (AP) — The mothers of Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman listened Friday to the same 911 recording of someone screaming for help, and each said she was convinced the voice was that of her own son. The starkly conflicting testimony over the potentially crucial piece of evidence came midway through Zimmerman’s murder trial in the 2012 shooting of the unarmed 17-year-old. “I heard my son screaming,” Sybrina Fulton, the teenager’s m...

‘Despicable Me’ tramples ‘Lone Ranger’ at theaters LOS ANGELES (AP) — “The Lone Ranger” seems to be riding into the sunset on its debut weekend. The Disney Western starring Armie Hammer as the titular character and Johnny Depp as Tonto was outpaced 3 to 1 by Universal’s “Despicable Me 2,” which also opened Wednesday. The animated sequel collected $59.9 million in ticket sales so far, while “The Lone Ranger” earned a paltry $19.5 million. While Disney is likely to recover based on its other str...

Obama’s toughest sell on Guantanamo: Senate Dems WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama’s hardest sell in his renewed push to close the U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, may be members of his own party — moderate Senate Democrats facing tough re-election bids next year in the strongly Republican South. Obama has stepped up the pressure to shutter the naval facility, driven in part by his revised counterterrorism strategy and the 4-month-old stain of the government force-feedin...

Furloughs begin for Defense Department civilians WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 650,000 civilian Defense Department workers will begin taking the first of their 11 unpaid days off next week, but the cut in salary they will see in the three months may pale compared to what officials worry could be larger scale layoffs next year. Roughly 85 percent of the department’s nearly 900,000 civilians around the world will be furloughed, according to the latest statistics provided by the Pentagon. But whi...

Experts: Expect bigger, fiercer wildfires in West LOS ANGELES (AP) — There’s a dangerous but basic equation behind the killer Yarnell Hill wildfire and other blazes raging across the West this summer: More heat, more drought, more fuel and more people in the way are adding up to increasingly ferocious fires. Scientists say a hotter planet will only increase the risk. More than two dozen wildland fires are burning from Alaska to New Mexico, fueled by triple-digit temperatures and arid conditio...

5 new features that could be on your next car DETROIT (AP) — Cameras that check around the car for pedestrians. Radar that stops you from drifting out of your lane. An engine able to turn off automatically at traffic lights to conserve fuel. Technology that saves lives — and fuel — is getting better and cheaper. That means it’s no longer confined to luxury brands like Mercedes and Volvo. It’s showing up in mainstream vehicles like the Nissan Rogue and Ford Fusion. “What we see today as sl...

Health insurers fear young people will opt out MIAMI (AP) — Dan Lopez rarely gets sick and hasn’t been to a doctor in 10 years, so buying health insurance feels like a waste of money. Even after the federal health overhaul takes full effect next year, the 24-year-old said he will probably decide to pay the $100 penalty for those who skirt the law’s requirement that all Americans purchase coverage. “I don’t feel I should pay for something I don’t use,” said the Milwaukee resident, who makes...

SF Bay Area commuter rail service resumes OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Commuter rail service resumed Friday in the San Francisco Bay Area after unions called off a strike and agreed to extend a labor contract for a month while bargaining continues. Thirty-five trains were put back in service in time for an expected light evening commute, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency said. Frances DeLoach of Oakland was among the dozens of commuters who lined up at the West Oakland station for the first...

Same-sex ruling has employers tweaking benefits WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling on same-sex marriage has private employers around the country scrambling to make sure their employee benefit plans comply with the law. The impact of the decision striking down part of the federal Defense of Marriage Act is clear in the 13 states and the District of Columbia where gay marriage is currently legal or soon will be: Same-sex married couples must be treated the same as other spo...

5-year-old drowns in swimming pool VAN BUREN (AP) — Authorities said a 5-year-old Fayetteville girl drowned in a swimming pool in western Arkansas. The Southwest Times Record reported the girl drowned in a pool in Van Buren on Wednesday. Crawford County Sheriff Ron Brown said the girl was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead after her 17-year-old brother and his 16-year-old girlfriend found her lifeless in a pool and called 911. Brown said the teens were watching the 5...

US touts democracy as Egyptian military takes over WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is turning to top officials to tout democracy, political transparency and peaceful protest for Egypt, a message that took on a hollow tone as the Egyptian military installed a new leader for the country and began rounding up its ousted president and his supporters. Tens of thousands of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi marched in Cairo on Friday, and gunfire and stone-throwing marked clash...